Method of providing a recent call list, software product, telecommunications device and system

ABSTRACT

A method of providing a recent call list of calls recently received or initiated by a telecommunications device where information on recent services which are services recently handled by or using the telecommunications device other than calls are incorporated as entries in a recent call list of the telecommunications device. Each entry can be formed by a data structure being composed of a plurality of data fields. Each data field can include a data value. An entry representing a recent service other than a call in the recent call list can include a service code identifying a recent service as a data value. A device, system, and apparatus can be configured to utilize or execute the method.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/627,674, which claims priority to EuropeanPatent Application No. 16176994.8, which was filed on Jun. 29, 2016. Theentirety of this European patent application is incorporated byreference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method of providing a recent calllist, and also relates to a software product, a telecommunicationsdevice and a telecommunications system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A telecommunication device can provide a recent call list that includescalls recently received or initiated by the telecommunications device. Arecent call list is generally understood as a list including callsrecently received and/or initiated using a telecommunications device,and generally allows a user to select particular entries, and initiatefurther calls based on such selection. The recent call list typicallyidentifies telephone calls that were previously made by the device. Inother words, a recent call list as generally known in the art is limitedto showing the history of past calls.

For example, WO 2014/187288 A1 relates to a call log invoking method. Acall log invoking request sent by a client comprises an action field forindicating an invoking operation and a type field for indicating that adata type is a call log. WO 2008/130101 A1 relates to providing variouscall services by using a hot key. EP 1 621 983 A2 relates to more easilyfind an item within a plurality of items of the same kind such ascommunications, contacts, folders, files, messages, applications, or thelike, by providing a recent item list of items that were recently used.Correspondences (incoming and outgoing) may be matched to acorresponding contact stored in a device. A recent item may be shownonly once in the recent items list.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A technical problem underlying the present invention is enhancingfunctionality of a recent call list. A further problem underlying thepresent invention is enhancing control of an integrated system facilitymanagement, surveillance, and monitoring by use of a telecommunicationsdevice.

The problem(s) mentioned above are at least in parts solved by thefeatures of the appended independent claims. Further developments andadvantageous embodiments of the invention are set forth in the dependentclaims.

A first aspect, or embodiment, of the present invention relates to amethod of providing a recent call list of calls recently received orinitiated by a telecommunications device. Information on recent serviceswhich are services recently handled by or using said telecommunicationsdevice other than calls are incorporated as entries in a recent calllist of said telecommunications device. Each entry of said recent calllist is formed by a data structure including a plurality of data fields,wherein each data field includes a data value. An entry representing arecent service other than a call in said recent call list includes aservice code identifying said recent service, as a data value. In theabove aspect, recently generally means in the past. Handling of aservice may include, without being limited to, initiating, controlling,monitoring, receiving reports about. A value may generally be comprisedof or interpretable as any sort of character string, numeral, logical,or whatsoever, or even an array thereof. A service other than a call maybe a service other than a telecommunications service at all such as dooropening, facility management or surveillance, entry control,environmental surveillance, machine control, or others.

It should be understood that a call as used herein to describeembodiments of the present innovation described in this patentapplication can include a telephone call, but can also include othertelephoning communication events such as fax, SMS (text messaging, shortmessage service messaging, etc.) and can also include other types oftelecommunications exchanges or messaging by email, skype, twitter,facebook, zing, a blog, or the like, and may include audio, video, text,or other content. A call may therefore include a telecommunicationsexchange involving the telecommunications device that may be defined byuse of an application stored on that device and use of a serviceaccessible via an application programming interface (“API”) or othertype of interface with a remote service hosted by one or more remoteservers (e.g. remote computer devices having hardware including aprocessor, memory, and at least one transceiver type device) accessiblevia a network (e.g. the internet, etc.) that may be utilized via thatapplication. A call in the sense of the application can be understood tobe represented by a call identifier of another side of the call andpreferably includes other contact information, in the recent call list.

In preferred embodiments, a data field may include a data fieldidentifier identifying its respective data value (e.g. each entry may beunderstood as a data set wherein a place intended for a specific kind ofdata value is a data field which is uniquely identified by a respectivedata field identifier). A kind of data value may be any data in relationto a call, such as date/time, duration, other party (called, calling),direction of call (in, out, incoming, outgoing, etc.), and absolute callcount in device, etc. The sum of entries may thus be provided in theform of a database or other type of datastore. As an example, the datastructure may be predefined by JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), orother data exchange format. In any of such data exchange formats, thedata values of each data field are information used for clearly andunambiguously identifying a call, and providing further informationthereon. At least, such information allows to identify another side ofthe call, in particular to an extent to be able to initiate a furthercall with said other side. Preferably, such information also includesother aspects of a call such as date and/or time of the call. A datafield identifier may be a mere field count, or be a character stringincluding a name or shortcut of a specific kind of data value such thata data field identifier indicates a place intended for a specific kindof data value, i.e., for a specific information relating to a call.Thereby, call information may be found, interpreted and used by a callhandling device or software stored in non-transitory memory of thatdevice that is run by a processor of that device.

In preferred embodiments, said service code may be included at a placeintended in said entry for a call identifier of another side of a call,and include a distinguisher allowing for distinguishing a service codefrom a call identifier. Said distinguisher may be a prefix or suffix,and may include a character or text not expected for a call identifier.It will be noted that each type of service may be addressed by a uniqueservice code just like a certain other party may be addressed by aunique call identifier. It will be noted that a call identifier mayinclude, without being limited to, any of a telephone number, a telefaxnumber, an email address, or any other type of electronic address.

In preferred embodiments, an entry representing a recent service otherthan a call in said recent call list may include a plain textdescription of said recent service as a data value. Said plain textdescription may be included at a place intended in said entry forcontact information of another side of a call, said contact informationincluding at least a name and a call identifier, and be in a formatexpected at that place.

In preferred embodiments, an entry representing a recent service otherthan a call in said recent call list may include a second level detailof said recent service as a data value. Said second level detail may beincluded at a place intended in said entry for a second level detail ofa call, and be in a format expected at that place. Second level detailof a call may for example include, without being limited to, detail ofwhether a call was answered, not answered, rejected, or ran into a busyterminal. Second level detail of a service other than a call may forexample include, without being limited to, a result of the service.

In preferred embodiments, an entry representing a recent service otherthan a call in said recent call list may include a service type of saidrecent service as a data value. Said service type may be included at aplace intended in said entry for a call type of a call, and be in aformat expected at that place. A type of a call may for example include,without being limited to, detail of whether a call was outgoing orincoming.

In preferred embodiments, an entry representing a recent service otherthan a call in said recent call list may include follow-up serviceinformation on a follow-up service which is a service to be activatedupon selection of said entry by a user, as a data value. Said follow-upservice information may include a service code identifying saidfollow-up service.

In preferred embodiments, said recent call list may be displayed ordisplayable upon user choice on a display device, and if an entryrepresenting a recent service other than a call is found in said recentcall list, at least one of the service code of said recent service, anda plain text description assigned to said service code, is displayed forsuch entry in displaying said recent call list. In other words, justdata fields which are used for displaying call details are also used todisplay contents of a recent service other than a call. The appearancein a displayed recent call list would be quite the same format forrecent calls and recent services other than calls.

In preferred embodiments, said recent call list is sorted or sortableupon user choice by at least one of a date, call identifier of anotherside of a call, name and/or other contact information, and service code.

In preferred embodiments, said entries regarding one same servicefunctionality are grouped or groupable together upon user choice in saidrecent call list. In preferred embodiments, said telecommunicationsdevice may be a telecommunications terminal device. Said recent serviceand/or a follow-up service may be executed or executable by atelecommunications server such as a PBX or the like. As an alternativeor additional option, remote services may address or be addressable by atelecommunications server such as a private branch exchange (PBX) oftelecommunication switch device via a local area network (LAN) or a widearea network (WAN). Such networks may be wireless, wired, or includetransmission paths that include both wired and wireless transmissionpaths involving a plurality of intermediate nodes (e.g. gateways, basestations, access points, routers, etc.).

In preferred embodiments, a data structure may be provided comprisingassignments of service codes and additional information for identifyingand/or describing a service or kind of service. Said additionalinformation may comprise at least one of a plain text description,service type, service code of a follow-up service. Said data structuremay be provided in the form of a database, table, or the like.

A second aspect, or embodiment, of the present invention relates to asoftware product for providing a recent call list of calls incoming toand outgoing from a telecommunications device, said software productbeing stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, preferablybeing directly loadable into an internal memory of a computer. Thesoftware product of this aspect comprises program code for performingthe steps of the method of the afore-described first aspect of thepresent invention at said telecommunications device when said softwareproduct is executed by said computer. Said computer may be embodied bysaid telecommunications device or a server connected to saidtelecommunications device. It will be noted that the software productmay be embodied by, without being limited to, a stand-alone software,software package, plug-in, add-on, app or the like to be included in orused by or co-executed with or enabling or enhancing functions of atelecommunications software, or may constitute or be part of or includea basic operating program of a telecommunications device, unit, server,system, or the like.

A third aspect, or embodiment, of the present invention relates to atelecommunications device, preferably a telecommunications terminaldevice (e.g. a computer, a desktop computer, a personal computer, alaptop computer, a telephone, a smart phone, an electronic tabletdevice, televisions, or other type of endpoint device having hardwarethat includes non-transitory memory (e.g. flash memory, a hard drive,etc.), a processor (e.g. a central processing unit, a microprocessor,etc.) configured for use by a user to initial calls and/or receive callsfor engaging in telecommunications activities with others, and at leastone transceiver unit (e.g. at least one receiver and at least onetransmitter). The telecommunications device of this aspect is adapted toexecute the method of the afore-described first aspect of the presentinvention. Adaptation may be provided by implementing the program codeof the software product of the afore-described second aspect of thepresent invention. It will be noted that the telecommunications terminaldevice in some embodiments may be any kind of device suitable to performtelecommunication events, such as a mobile phone, smart phone, portablecomputer, desktop computer, a telecommunications server such as a PBX,or the like.

A fourth aspect, or embodiment, of the present invention relates to atelecommunications system comprising at least one telecommunicationsdevice, preferably at least one telecommunications terminal device. Thetelecommunications system of this aspect is adapted to execute themethod of the afore-described first aspect of the present invention.Adaptation may be provided by implementing the program code of thesoftware product of the afore-described second aspect of the presentinvention on at least one instance included in said telecommunicationssystem. The telecommunications system may comprise at least one serverfor executing services other than telecommunications services. Theserver may be or included in or comprise a PBX. Said services other thantelecommunications services may include at least one of a door openingservice, door monitoring service, facility management service,surveillance or monitoring services, or the like. The telecommunicationssystem may further comprise at least one of a telecommunications serverfor executing telecommunications services. It will be noted that theserver and the telecommunications server may be, but need not to be, thesame device.

Embodiments (or aspects) of the present invention may as well beembodied by a computer program including instructions configured forstorage within memory of a device to cause that device to perform thesteps of the afore-described method of the first aspect when saidcomputer program is loaded in or executed by said device, or by adigital data carrier having electrically readable control signals whichare designed to operate with a programmable device, said control signalbeing designed and adapted to cause the device to perform the steps ofthe method of the afore-described first aspect of the present invention.In any such cases, the device may also be embodied by thetelecommunications device of the afore-described third aspect.

With embodiments of the present invention, a concept is introduced thatservices activated or addressed via service codes can be incorporatedwithin a recent call list so that such services appear just liketelephone calls in the call history. In other words, the functionalityof a well-known recent call list is enhanced in that it may beunderstood as a recent-calls-and-services history, and each serviceevent appearing as an entry in the history may be selected just as acall so as to inspect its details, or activate some follow-up servicewhich may be predefined or suggested as part of the same entry of therecent call list. This also enhances control of an integrated systemfacility management, surveillance, and monitoring by use of atelecommunications device.

Further aspects (or embodiments), objects, advantages, and details ofthe present invention will become more apparent from the followingdescription of specific exemplary embodiments of the invention andrespective illustration thereof in the appended drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Exemplary embodiments of a software product stored in non-transitorymemory, a telecommunications device, and a telecommunications system,and methods of making and using the same are shown in the drawingsincluded herewith. It should be understood that like reference numbersused in the drawings may identify like components.

FIG. 1 shows a general example of a telecommunications environmentincluding a telecommunications system and a telecommunications deviceaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows an excerpt of a recent call list provided by a methodaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention as showingup on a display of a telecommunications device.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of a process in a method according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of another process in a method according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows an example of an recent call entry of a recent call listprovided by a method according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 shows an example of an recent service entry of a recent call listprovided by a method according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention.

Next, the invention will be described with reference to specificexemplary embodiments in view of the appended drawings. It will be notedhowever that the illustrations in the drawings are purely schematic,need not to be to scale, and may be limited to features that arebelieved to be useful for a person of skill in the art to understandprinciples that may be incorporated into embodiments of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows a general example of a telecommunications environment 100according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the telecommunications system includes a number ofcommunications terminal devices 102. Each terminal device 102 may ingeneral be understood as a computer device that includes a CPU, ROM,RAM, internal and/or external busses, interfaces and controllers, powersupply etc. and is connected to (or includes) a display unit 104 fordisplaying contents as results of software running on terminal device102. For instance, software stored in non-transitory memory can beexecuted by a processor of the terminal device 102 such that the deviceperforms a method defined by the code of the software. Graphical userinterface information can be displayed based on such software via thedisplay unit to facilitate displaying of output to a user and receipt ofinput from a user utilizing one or more input devices of the terminaldevice (e.g. touch screen feature of the display unit 104, stylus,button, keypad, keyboard, pointer device, mouse, etc.).

In the present example, a recent call list 106 is displayed on displayunit 104 of one of the terminal devices 102. Each terminal device 102may also be connected to (or include) I/O facilities such as a writingunit 108 such as a keyboard, a pointing unit 109 such as a mouse, and avoice unit 110 such as a head set. Terminal devices 102 are connected toa PBX 112 directly or via a local area network (not explicitly shown),or implemented in PBX 112.

Moreover, a door opening service 114 and a facility management service116 are connected to a PBX 112 directly or via the local area network,or implemented in PBX 112. PBX 112 is connected or connectable to a widearea network (WAN) 118 such as the Internet or the like. For connectingto WAN 118, PBX 112 may be assumed to be connected to or include somerouting/gateway facility (not explicitly shown) which may also managethe local area network mentioned above. Via WAN 118, PBX 112 is furtherconnected to a telecommunications provider 120 and a remote facilitymanagement system 122. The terminals 102 and the PBX 112 may beunderstood as a telecommunications system in the sense of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 shows an excerpt of recent call list 106 as it shows up ondisplay 104 of a telecommunications device 102 used by a user (see FIG.1), including typical examples of the features introduced according tothe present invention. The recent call list 106 includes a number ofentries which will be generally addressed by reference sign 202, in thefollowing. In the excerpt showing up in FIG. 2 seven individual entries202.1, . . . , 202.7 are visible of which entries 202.1, 201.2, 202.5and 202.7 relate to recent calls, entries 202.4 and 202.6 relate totelecommunication services other than telephone calls, and entry 202.3relates to a service other than a telecommunication service (and,obviously, other than a telephone call).

Each entry 202 displayed in the excerpt of the recent call list 106 isdivided into several display areas as exemplarily indicated by dottedborder lines in the first entry 202.1, including a name area 204, anumber area 206, a date area 208, a time area 210, and a selection area212. If an entry relates to a call such as, e.g., entry 202.1, 202.2 andothers, the name area 204 shows a name of a person (or more generally,of a party which also may be a company, society or whatever entity) towhich or from which the call was directed, the number area 206 shows anumber (or more generally, a party identifier) of the party to which orfrom which the call was directed, the date and time areas 208, 210 showa date and time of when the call was made or received, and selectionarea 212 includes some selection symbol which is selectable by, e.g.,pointing unit 109 of FIG. 1. If an entry relates to a service other thana call as exemplified by entry 202.3, the name area 204 shows a shortdescription 214 of the service, the number area 206 shows a service code216, and the date and time areas 208, 210 show a date and time when theservice event has happened. In any case, selecting the section symbol inselection area 212 leads to a further action associated with the entry,such as showing its details or executing some follow-up service beingprescribed by default or varying depending on a situation, or beingselectable by user choice.

As shown in FIG. 2, a service code 216 showing up in the number area 204of entries 202.3, 202.4 and 202.6 has a format clearly showing that thenumber is not a telephone number or other call identifier. In thepresent example, a service code is prefixed by a “*” character (asterisksign). It will be noted that the invention is not limited to a “*”prefix for this purpose.

The excerpt of recent call list 106 shown in FIG. 2 is sorted by dateand time such that the most recent entry shows up first. However, thereis no limitation in this regard. In particular, the list may begenerated as a pure data structure, each entry identified by some entryidentifier or count not showing up when displayed, and may be sorted byany other criteria automatically, by default, or upon user choice fordisplay.

The concept of introducing service codes 216 inside recent call list 106opens a new view in presenting recent calls in telephone systems(herein, an entry of a recent call list may also be addressed as a“recent”, for ease of language). This can enable users to see theiractivated features such as opening a door, forwarding a call,transferring a call, granting access to a user to reach an outside line,parking a call etc. In that essence, recents become a more commonhistory of exactly what a user has done with his or her device.

In the following, an approach on the method of how service codes of anykind can be incorporated in recents of a recent call list so a user canhandle them in the same way as recent calls, will be described. Thisdescription is oriented for showing the different attributes that can bededucted from such an approach:

-   -   showing the service codes and translating to the actual code        listing up the history;    -   what happens when the user selects a recent entry that in fact        is a service other than a call or, more generally, other than a        telecommunication service; and    -   how service codes can be grouped depending on type.

<Showing Services Codes in Recents>

First of all, an exemplary principle data structure of an entry inrecent call list 106 will be described by way of example. FIG. 3 shows adata structure 300 representing a recent call list entry 106 as shown inFIG. 1. The data structure 300 may be understood as a listing in JSONformat. An overview of the JSON data interchange format may be found in“The JSON Data Interchange Format”, Standard ECMA-404, 1_(st)Edition/October 2013, ecma international, with further references. Thelisting in FIG. 3 includes a JSON response showing how a recent callentry 106 may be represented in an PBX system. It will be noted howeverthat JSON is just one example of a data structure to describe the waydata is received. Other forms may apply as well. The JSON format isused, for example, in Asterisk which is a common telephone system. Ofcourse, the present invention is not limited to this application.

In JSON as in many other data interchange formats, a data structure(which may also be referred to as a data set or object) may be listed intext form which is written in lines. In the present example as shown inFIG. 3, the data structure 300 includes lines 302-326 counted in evennumbers. The first and last lines 302, 326 include an opening token 354and a closing token 356, respectively (here, left and right curlybrackets) while lines 304-324 include respective data fields 352. Itwill be noted that data fields 352 are separated from each other by adata field separator (here, a comma). Each data field 352 is composed ofa data field identifier 358 (the “name” of the data field) and a datavalue 360. Data field identifiers 358 and data values 360 are characterstrings (words) framed by quotation signs (double inverted commas). Adata filed identifier 358 is followed by a data value 360, separated bya separator (colons). If a data value 360 includes more than one itemsuch as for the destination field in line 312, the items are separatedfrom each other by another separator (backslash). It will be noted thatlisting in lines is only for the human reader for ease of recognitionbut is not necessary for automatic interpretation of the data structure300. In the following, a specific one of data fields 352 may also bereferred to by its line count within the data structure 300.

As seen in FIG. 3, a JSON response of a recent call may include the datafields shown in table 1 below:

TABLE 1 Data fields in recent call entry IDENTIFIER CONTENT id objectidentifier (call count) start starting date and time of call (predefineddate and time format) src source of call (number only) dst destinationof call (number only) destination destination of call (name and number)duration duration of call (time information on duration of call, etc.(date of call and time indicating entirety of the duration of the call,etc.) disposition ANSWERED, NO ANSWER, BUSY, or other dispositionidentifier answer date and time of answering the call end date and timeof end of the call direction direction of the call (in; out, etc.)callerid call identification (e.g. caller ID, etc.)

It is noted however that the above identifiers and contents areexemplary and may be defined as needed in a telecommunications device,system, or software, and even by a user.

To include recent services other than calls in a recent call list,service codes can be incorporated in a recent call entry. A table whichmatches the service code activated with the actual service code canwrite in the recents the actual service in text mode. Recent's date andtime are the same as any other recent call.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a data structure 400 representing a recentcall list entry 106 referring to a recent service other than a call, ina recent call list. This data structure 400 includes lines 402-428 wherelines 404-426 include data fields and lines 402, 428 include opening andclosing tokens, respectively. For further details on the data structure400 which is similar to data structure 300 of FIG. 3, see the aforedescription. In this data structure 400, the fields “dst” (line 410),“destination” (line 412), “disposition” (line 416), and “direction”(line 422) have been re-used for including content relating to therecent service, and a new data field “action” is included in line 426.The “action” field 426 may be understood as a user-defined data field.Below table 2 includes how data fields match with a service code entry.

TABLE 2 Matching of data fields in recent service entries IDENTIFIERCONTENT FOR RECENT SERVICE dst The actual service code activated fromuser at the “start time” destination The service code in text mode as itis obtained by the database disposition Second level details from theservice action direction The actual type of the entry (“service”) actionFurther action on selecting an entry

In the “direction” field 422 an application can decide if this entry isa service code or an actual call and it can handle the informationlikewise.

All other fields remain the same as in recent calls. So even anapplication that does not distinguish the difference between call andservice will show this information irrespectively of the content.

In the listing of data structure 400 shown in FIG. 4, the number in the“src” field is the number of a user of the terminal device where therecent call list is provided, and the service code of a serviceinitiated using this device is found in the “dst” field. However, it canbe vice versa such that in case that the service is initiated by anotherside the service code is found in the “src” field, and the own number isfound in the “dst” field in such case.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of a process 500 of matching incorporatingservice codes in recent call list. As shown in FIG. 5, process 500starts by recognizing a user action in step 502. Then, in step 504, ajudgment is made as to whether a call or a service was included in theuser action recognized in step 502. If the judgment 504 leads to a call,an incoming/outgoing call handling is made in step 506. If the judgment504 leads to a service other than a call, a service code handling ismade in step 508 which implies data exchange with a database 510.Thereafter, the branches via steps 506, 508 are reunited, and a recentcall list is provided in step 512.

<Service Code Selection>

When selecting a recent call either details are displayed or theselected number is called back. Similarly these two options will beapplied when a service other than a call is selected. In case detailsare to be shown all information is obtained from the response. This isup to the application how to handle this information. It will be notedthat selection of an entry may be done by touching a screen area (e.g.,selection area 212 in FIG. 2), pushing or pressing a key, expressingspeech or gesture or whatever input option the employed terminal devicemay offer. In case user selects an entry of a recent service other thana call then not all same rules do apply as in the case of recent call.The differentiation is due to the fact that a dialing the same servicecode combination is not necessarily the same action required for allcases.

For example, a user selects a feature code to open a door via use of aninput device for providing the selection. This entry is registered as anopen door action. When user selects this entry in the recent call list,then it makes little sense if the door opens again. It would make senseif the user watches the door from a video monitor or opens the speakercall of the door etc. The above example shows the necessity to define anadditional field namely the “action” field shown in FIG. 4 that candefine another action (so-called follow-up action) from the oneadditionally registered. The information of whether a different actionis necessary is held in a local database of the underlined communicationsystem.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of a process 600 on writing onto the “Action”field. The flowchart is an excerpt relating to steps 508 and 512 ofprocess 500 shown in FIG. 5 and analyzes in more detail one of thefunctions of service codes handler step 508, as indicated by steps 602,604, and 606 which are part of service code handler step 508.

<Grouping Service Codes>

One additional functionality that can be provided is the grouping ofconsecutive service codes. Again in this case this functionality differsfrom the one of the consecutive calls. Taking as example the door openerfeature there are many times that service codes might differ for thesame functionality. For example, service code may contain a secret key.Different users can open the door with different keys from the samedevice. In that case the recent call list will differentiate the twoservice codes for the same function and will list up two differententries. Hence the field “destination” may become very important sincethis is the one that can generically provide the information of theactual feature code. In this point it is to be made clear that“destination” and “dst” are two levels of decision given in theapplication which can be used openly. In other words, is up to theapplication whether it would use the information provided from the JSONlisting, since the latter's content could be taken as redundantinformation.

The invention has been described above based on specific exemplaryembodiments, and variations and modifications thereof. Obviously, anyfeatures, objects, advantages, and details of any specific exemplaryembodiment, its variations and modifications apply to any otherembodiment, variation or modification mutatis mutandis unless suchapplication obviously violates technical constraints or laws of nature.Embodiments, variations and modifications may be combined with any otherembodiment, variation or modification, and any combination as a whole orin terms of single feature may be assumed to constitute an embodiment ofthe invention.

It should be understood that while certain exemplary embodiments of thetelecommunication apparatus and methods of making and using the samehave been shown and described above, it is to be distinctly understoodthat the invention is not limited thereto but may be otherwise variouslyembodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A telecommunications apparatus comprising: atleast one telecommunications device communicatively connectable to atleast one server for executing services, the at least onetelecommunications device having a processor and a non-transitorycomputer readable medium; the at least one telecommunications deviceconfigured to incorporate information on recent services as entries in arecent call list of said telecommunications device, wherein each entryis defined by a data structure, wherein the recent call list comprisesat least one non-telecommunications service entry representing a recentservice other than a telecommunications service in said recent calllist, each at least one non-telecommunications service entry comprising:a service code identifying a non-telecommunications service as a datavalue such that the service code or an identified associated with theservice code is displayable when the recent call list is displayedregardless of whether differences between telecommunication calls andnon-telecommunication services are distinguishable by thetelecommunications device; and the at least one telecommunicationsdevice configured to display at least one follow-up action optionassociated with the service code in response to a selection of at leastone of the non-telecommunications service entry of the recent call list.2. The telecommunications apparatus of claim 1, comprising: the server,the server having at least one processor connected to a non-transitorycomputer readable medium.
 3. The telecommunication apparatus of claim 2,wherein the server is communicatively connected to thetelecommunications device via at least one network.
 4. Thetelecommunications apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least onenon-telecommunications service entry comprises at least one entry from adoor opening service, a door monitoring service, a facility management,and/or a surveillance service.
 5. The telecommunications apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the identifier associated with the service code isdisplayable via the telecommunications device so that the identifier isincluded at a place for a call identifier of another side of a telephonecall, and said service code includes a distinguisher that distinguishesthe identifier from a call identifier so that the identifier isdisplayable regardless of whether differences between telecommunicationcalls and non-telecommunication services are distinguishable by thetelecommunications device.
 6. The telecommunications apparatus of claim5, wherein said distinguisher is a prefix of the service code or asuffix of the service code.
 7. The telecommunications apparatus of claim1, wherein a data structure comprising assignments of service codes andadditional information comprising a description of anon-telecommunications service associated with each of the servicecodes, said data structure being stored in the non-transitory computerreadable medium so that the data structure is accessible to thetelecommunications device.
 8. The telecommunications apparatus of claim6, wherein the identifier associated with the service code isdisplayable via the telecommunications device based on the description.9. The telecommunications apparatus of claim 1, wherein the identifierincludes a plain text description of said recent service as a datavalue.
 10. The telecommunications apparatus of claim 9, wherein theplain text description is displayable at a place intended in said entryfor contact information of another side of a telephone call, saidcontact information including at least one of a name, a telephonenumber, a telefax number, an email address, or any other electronicaddress, and is in a format expected at that place.
 11. Thetelecommunications apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least onenon-telecommunications service entry in said recent call list includes asecond level detail as a data value, wherein said second level detail isdisplayable at a place intended for a second level detail of a telephonecall, and is in a format expected at that place.
 12. Thetelecommunications apparatus of claim 1, wherein the identifier of theat least one non-telecommunications service entry is displayable in saidrecent call list so that the identifier is displayed at a place intendedfor a call type of a telephone call, and is in a format expected at thatplace.
 13. A method of providing a recent call list of calls recentlyreceived or initiated by a telecommunications device, thetelecommunications device comprising a processor connected to anon-transitory computer readable medium, the method comprising:incorporating information on recent services other than telephone callsas entries in a recent call list of said telecommunications device,wherein each entry is defined by a data structure comprised of aplurality of data fields, each data field including a data value, andwherein the recent call list comprises at least onenon-telecommunications service entry representing a recent service otherthan a telecommunications service in said recent call list, each atleast one non-telecommunications service entry comprising: an identifierassociated with a service code identifying a non-telecommunicationsservice and/or the service code; displaying the recent call list havingthe at least one non-telecommunications service entry via thetelecommunications device so that that identifier is displayed in therecent call list; and in response to a selection of at least onenon-telecommunications service entry from the displayed recent calllist, said telecommunications device displaying at least one follow-upaction option associated with the service code.
 14. The method of claim13, wherein said service code and the identifier are displayed so thatthe service code and the identifier are displayed in the recent calllist at a place intended for a call identifier of another side of acall, and said service code includes a distinguisher that distinguishesthe service code from a telephone call identifier.
 15. The method ofclaim 14, wherein said distinguisher is a prefix or a suffix.
 16. Themethod of claim 13, comprising: storing an assignment data structure inthe telecommunication device, the assignment data structure comprisingassignments of service codes and additional information comprising adescription of a non-telecommunications service associated with each ofthe service codes, the identifier being based on the description. 17.The method of claim 13, wherein the identifier is displayed so that theidentifier is included at a place intended in said entry for contactinformation of another side of a telephone call, said contactinformation including at least one of a name, a telephone number, atelefax number, an email address, or any other electronic address, andis in a format expected at that place.
 18. The method of claim 13,comprising: displaying the recent call list via a display such that theat least one non-telecommunications service entry is displayed so thatthe identifier associated with the service code is displayed via thedisplay.
 19. The method of claim 13, comprising: sorting said recentcall list by at least one of a date, a call identifier of another sideof a telephone call, and service code.
 20. A non-transitory computerreadable medium having a software product for providing a recent calllist of calls incoming to and outgoing from a telecommunications devicestored therein, said software product comprising program code forperforming the steps of a method that is executed by thetelecommunications device when the telecommunications device runs thecode, the method comprising: incorporating information on recentservices other than telephone calls as entries in a recent call list ofsaid telecommunications device, the recent call list comprising at leastone non-telecommunications service entry representing a recent serviceother than a telecommunications service in said recent call list, eachnon-telecommunications service entry comprising: an identifierassociated with a service code for a non-telecommunications serviceand/or the service code; displaying the recent call list having the atleast one non-telecommunications service entry via thetelecommunications device; and in response to a selection of at leastone non-telecommunications service entry from the displayed recent calllist, displaying at least one follow-up action option associated withthe service code.